Organizational Ecology And Strategic Leadership
The ideas which dominate our civilization at the present time date in their most virulent form stem from the Industrial Revolution. They may be summarized as:
\r (a) It\'s us against the environment.
\r (b) It\'s us against other men.
\r (c) It\'s the individual (or the individual company, or the individual nation) that matters.... We submit that these ideas are simply proved false by the great but ultimately destructive achievements of our technology in the last 150 years. Likewise they appear to be false under modern ecological theory. The creature that wins against its environment destroys itself.
-Gregory Bateson
An organisation\'s basic philosophy is more important to its result than technological and/ or economic resources, organisational structure, innovation and choice of time.
-Thomas Watson Jr.
This article contains no information about technological trends, economical predictions or market analyses. It lays out five principle insights into how and why any enterprise in the world today should practise Strategic Leadership internally in the organisation.
Both strategy and leadership are today a matter of course. How comes, then, that so very few enterprises do actually practise Strategic Leadership? The reasons are many. Top managers want to keep all ways open, not being bound to follow previously decided paths. They want to keep flexibility. Sometimes they have hidden agendas that would surface if strategy was overtly formulated. In some cases middle management hides from strategy and leadership because they want to have the liberty to side with the top one day, the bottom the other - even on the same topic. Leadership is dangerous, many managers seem to feel. One sticks one\'s neck out, and it might be cut off. Strategic decisions might be unpopular. Or, one\'s incompetence as strategic leader might become evident. Sometimes processes as those presented here are avoided simply because they take time. There are so many good reasons - and many of them are respectable and sensible.
No-strategy and no-leadership may be OK on a dreamy pacific island. However, in an environment with ever faster changing technology, markets and international politics, and with an ever stronger competition long term survival depends on strategy and leadership. The competitively able enterprises of today and tomorrow are lean, delayered, decentralised, delegated and flexible. Such enterprises have strategy, it is known, owned and practised by more than a CEO and leadership is practised at all management levels.
Strategic Leadership is based on five insights into the essence of organisations. These insights are here formulated as principles:
Within the ecosystem, all components are dependant on other components for their very existence. Individuals and groups within an organisation are mutually dependant on each other and have superior common interests.
Whenever destructive conflicts appear on the scene, the main reason is that the \'parties\' involved are not aware that they are parts of a system on which they all depend. Usually there is a lack of common goals is such situations. Strategy contains the common goals, identity and ethics. Without strategy, the organisation is fragmented into departments, professional groups and working groups without co-operation or synergy.
Individuals and/ or groups of people defend their territory against intruders, and hierarchical positions against rivals.
There is no doubt that man is territorial. Without strategy, no common territory is defined. Then individuals and groups define their own territory, which is defended and given superiority, even over the interests of the company. Motivation to perform for the company diminishes, motivation to fight for one\'s own or one\'s own group\'s interests (against other\'s in the company) increase.
Man is also hierarchical. Without obvious leadership, a lasting struggle to establish the missing hierarchy starts off. This is wrongly often understood as expressions of a power need. This struggle is most often superfluous. A clear-cut hierarchy based on Strategic Leadership is the necessary first step to prevent \'power struggles\'.
For all systems and organisations there is a theoretical optimum degree of openness:
- Closed systems and monocultures degenerate and/ or die out
- Totally exposed systems lose integrity, identity and focus
Free flow of information, and free discussion between organisational levels and lines is a necessity. No single person can be the informed specialist of everything in today\'s complex world. Strategic Leadership ensures that this exchange of knowledge and opinion happens. The organisation should be a truly open system internally - and of course externally.
A system that is very open runs the risk of losing integrity, identity and focus. That is exactly another contribution from Strategic Leadership: a strategy that is owned by all hands implies integrity, identity and focus.
The effect of influences to the ecosystem and upon organisations is dependent on:
- The content of the influence
- The context
- The order in which the influences come
- The stage of development of the system
The fruitful ongoing process of Strategic Leadership should be strictly led and follow certain patterns. Unless this is taken seriously, the situation could turn to the worse. Power struggles, bureaucracy, de-motivation and wasted time could result. Content, context, syntax and the developmental stage of the system must be regarded.
Ecosystems and organisations are governed by feedback.
The strategically led company depends, as we said, on free flows of information and opinion. The company is a complex, self-organising and self-correcting system. Any breach in feedback loops is a threat to the company. Feedback should be encouraged, and it should be seen as a matter of course, and an obvious duty of any employee. Feedback is encouraged and put to system in Strategic Leadership.
We see then, that Strategic Leadership has a theoretical basis. This will be further detailed throughout this booklet. Empirical knowledge also strongly supports the necessity of Strategic Leadership. The studies of successful enterprises in the eighties and nineties show that values and strategic goals are deeply rooted in the corporate culture of those enterprises, and that their managers practise more active leadership than mere administrative management.
Per A Christensen has been working as a management consultant since 1983. He has consulted a vast variety of governments, businesses and industries in various countries.
PA Christensen
\r http://www.christensen.cn
\r http://www.christensen-ebooks.com
\r http://blog.christensen-ebooks.com
Executable Strategic Planning Is Effective Delegation of Who Does What By When
Strategic planning is designed to out think and out last current and future obstacles to organizational success. Strategic comes from the word strateg...
Strategic Planning Reinforces Possibility Thinking
Strategic planning is all about creating specific strategic (thoughts). The more your people think about the possibilities, the greater likelihood th...
How Committed are You and Your Team to the Ongoing Execution of Your Strategic Plan?
Years ago my business coach shared this story with me and I continually use it with my clients. The story goes like this:"Would you agree that the US...
New Strategic Thinking
Throughout my life I have been able to pinpoint specific examples of colleagues who have exemplified new strategic thinking in their professions. I'd ...
Strategic Planning Training
Strategic planning examines the pitfalls in the current management of organizations, companies or concepts and plans for safe movement towards upward ...
Executive Strategic & Business Planning
Executive Strategic and Business PlanningBusiness owners and leaders today have found that developing a strategy and using an implementation plan are ...
What Paradigms are the Unseen Obstacles within the Execution of Your Strategic Plan?
Strategic plans are created in one to three year cycles and reviewed on a regular basis or they should be. These plans are constructed to deal with c...
What is Strategic Planning?
Strategic planning consists of developing strategies to reach a defined goal. It helps organizations to envision their future and develop essential st...
What Does "Good" Look Like In An Organization?
If you are an executive or CEO and responsible for a large organization, and, if you are of the opinion that youll know whats good when you see it, t...
Strategic Planning Must Include a Strategic Action Plan Filled with WAY SMART Goals
Strategic planning is all about who does what by when. Even though this is a solid small business strategy to high level business strategy, implementi...
Assessments for Improved Results
Improved results just don't happen.Everyone looks for improved results. When training, we want to be able to run faster and go longer distances, lift ...
Is the Lack of Confidence Keeping You From Executing Your Strategic Plan ?
A solid strategic plan should inspire and build confidence within all team members of your organization. The result of confidence should build loyal ...
Strategic Planning Begins With Mission and Vision Statements
A sure-fire way to start the success of your business strategic planning process is to identify the foundation upon which your business was built. L...
The New Strategic Planning
Most organizations set out their direction in an overall strategic plan. The plan includes some rendition of a cascading goals actions evaluation pr...
Strategic Planning - Strategy as Direction
The word "strategic" is often mis-used, mostly because it implies both importance and intelligent analysis. There is a great deal more to strategy th...
This entry has been filed under
Corporate Strategic Planning
and currently has